E. A. Morris - Fellowship for Emerging Leaders

About the E.A. Morris Fellowship for Emerging Leaders

The John Locke Foundation is pleased to announce its latest program: the E.A. Morris Fellowship for Emerging Leaders.

North Carolina will face many challenges in the coming years, challenges that will require the emergence of a new generation of leaders with the knowledge, skills, and understanding to bring together public and private institutions to solve key problems.

Underwritten by the E.A. Morris Charitable Foundation and the John William Pope Foundation, the Morris Fellowship program encourages committed, diverse, and principled North Carolinians to pursue greater leadership roles within their professions and communities. Morris Fellows will explore the dynamics of public policy, principles of individual liberty and free enterprise, the role of private and nonprofit institutions in a free society, and the role of citizen leaders in a hands-on manner. Through the Fellowship program, these committed individuals will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to become leaders in business, nonprofit, education, government, and other areas of public service.

The program is named in honor of Mr. Edwin A. Morris, one of the founding fathers of the North Carolina conservative movement. E.A. Morris was known for his leadership skills in his community and throughout North Carolina. Under his influence, Greensboro-based Blue Bell, Inc. became a global corporation. His generosity extended to the support of many charitable and philanthropic causes that aid the advancement of the human condition. While he received several accolades for his achievements, he remained unassuming, humbly accepting such praise.

Each class of Morris Fellows will be selected through a competitive process of applications, interviews, and exercises. A nomination is preferred but is not required. Candidates may self-nominate, but each application must be accompanied by references from North Carolinians already in significant positions of leadership in the public, for-profit, or nonprofit sectors.

The candidate's commitment includes mandatory attendance at three Morris Fellows retreats, each to be held in a different location around the state, plus a choice of at least four other approved seminars or conferences. The additional events, chosen by participants, may be sponsored by think tanks, universities, trade associations, civic clubs or other organizations. Morris Fellows must also demonstrate their leadership initiative in the form of a community leadership project. Through this final project, Fellows will have the opportunity to share with their entire Fellows class experiences and achievements over the course of the year.

As emerging leaders, the chosen Fellows will gain new opportunities to advance the principles of individual liberty, limited government, and free enterprise, the principles that allow our society to thrive.